Magic 96, Lakers 94: One regular season game never is a complete picture, but every once in a while one is a microcosm of a team. This defense-heavy game told us a lot about both teams.

Orlando is a just a better team when the offense is running through a finally healthy Jameer Nelson. His stats were not spectacular, but he set their offense up and it flows when he does it. Vince Carter showed why the Magic wanted him as he used the pick-and-roll to slash into the lane. The Magic played great defense to set up the win, and they pounded the boards hard. This is a team that now has beaten the Lakers and the Cavaliers in recent weeks. This is a team that after a slow start is looking like a serious title contender heading into the playoffs.

These Lakers remind me a lot of the 2004 version — a team that made it to the finals because of an amazing collection of talent, but that was not enough of a team to win it all. Los Angeles has enough pure talent to hang close in a game where they played mediocre on offense for long stretches. The Lakers are inconsistent outside shooters, which allows teams to pack the paint in and make it hard for the talented Laker bigs to have room to operate. The spacing required for the triangle comes and goes. So the Lakers go heavy Kobe isolation at the end of games. Often that is good enough. Sometimes it is not.

Pistons 110 Rockets 107: The Rockets relied twice in crunch time on pick and pop resulting in an 18 footer from Luis Scola (who is very good from that spot). The Pistons relied on Tayshaun Prince dunking in the exact same manner (left sweeping right, one hand, no pump-back) three times in the final four minutes. That explains the Detroit win.

An important thing to note here is the play of Jordan Hill for the Rockets. He was considered a bust in New York, but the kid brought a nice finish underneath and some solid rebounds, and got run late. Lot of potential for the Rockets. But then, the things they need now (like, oh, say, Kevin Martin scoring well) just aren’t showing up when they need them.

Thunder 108 Kings 102: The Kings got production from the guys they want to get production from. That’s a win for them.

But when Kevin Durant pours in points plus rebounds plus assists? When they get contributions from all over? When Russell Westbrook decides to go alpha dog in the fourth quarter? Well, at that point it’s rhetorical question time. Too much too everything, and the Thunder keep winning.

Nuggets 118, Blazers 106: When the Blazers offense with this diminished roster is great, it creates wide open jumpers through well-timed and executed drive and dish, then the extra pass, then potentially another pass.

When the Blazers’ offense with this diminished roster is terrible, it settles for mid-range jumpers instead of forcing the issue, and often suffers with too selfless play.

See how thin the line can be?

The Blazers’ injuries are felt more than any other team. They just feel and look like such a shell of who they were at the start of the year. They have no one to kick the ball to down low, they lack perimeter personnel to fill in the gaps because one of their two perimter guys outside of Roy (banged-up), Bayless and Miller are always having to initiate the offense.

The Nuggets got the glass, made a handful of good defensive isolation plays based mostly on superior talent, and Carmelo Anthony did his thing.

Still, something’s lacking from Denver, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. Either that or Birdman’s mustache is freaking me out.

Sixers 114, Raptors 101: The one sure way to get Philadelphia going is to give them some turnovers to convert to easy buckets — and that’s what Toronto did early. For the game, the Sixers turned the ball over on 20% of their possessions, one in every five trips down the court. Thaddeus Young feasted, and had a career best 32. When Toronto tried to make a late run it was rookie Jrue Holiday who took charge and basically took over the game. At age 19. There are moments of hope for the Sixers club (at least until they remember Elton Brand’s contract)

Celtics 86, Wizards 83: Boston’s whole game is based on energy and bringing that energy to the defensive end in particular. They didn’t for 42 minutes. Washington came out wanting this, they put in the energy. But in the end talent wins out in this league 99% of the time — Boston has a lot more. Washington is learning, Andray Blatche missed a turn around 10-footer with five seconds to go to tie the game — a shot he has been just drilling the last five games — and he missed it. So Boston plays six minutes of good ball in an otherwise sloppy game and gets a win. It goes like that some nights..

CLEVELAND (AP) —LeBron James scored 40 points as part of his third triple-double in four games and the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Milwaukee Bucks 124-117 on Monday night as coach Tyronn Lue began his leave of absence to address health issues.

Lue said Monday in a statement he been dealing with chest pains and loss of sleep, and that tests have offered no conclusion about what the issue is. Associate head coach Larry Drew will run the team in Lue’s absence.

James scored 17 points in the third quarter and finished with 12 rebounds and 10 assists for his 16th triple-double this season and 71st of his career.

The four-time MVP took over in the third beginning with back-to-back 3-pointers. After not getting a foul called on a third attempt, he finished Cleveland’s next possession with a massive dunk. He was fouled attempting another dunk and made both free throws the following time down.

Milwaukee cut a 17-point lead to 117-109, but James drove the length of the floor for a dunk with just over a minute left.

Cavaliers All-Star forward Kevin Love returned after missing six weeks because of a broken left hand and scored 18 points in 25 minutes. He sparked a 10-0 run in the second quarter with two 3-pointers

Giannis Antetokounmpo had 37 points and went 11 for 11 at the foul line for Milwaukee, which is seventh in the Eastern Conference. Khris Middleton had 30 points, making 11 of 16 from the field.

Milwaukee guard Jason Terry was given a Flagrant-1 foul for hitting Ante Zizic in the face with an open hand while the rookie center was putting up a shot in the lane. Zizic made both free throws, helping spark a run that built a double-figure lead.

Lue, 40, led Cleveland to the 2016 NBA championship after taking over for David Blatt midway through that season.

The Cavaliers (41-29) are third in the Eastern Conference and have endured roster shake-ups, injuries and other distractions as they try to reach the NBA Finals for the fourth straight time.

No timetable has been given for when Lue will return. He missed the second half Saturday, the second time this season he left a game because he wasn’t feeling well. Lue also sat out a game against Chicago at home in December.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Pelicans say rookie guard Frank Jackson won’t make his NBA debut this season after having follow-up surgery to remove residual scar tissue from earlier right foot operations.

The Pelicans say Jackson also received an injection in his foot.

The club says a specialist in New York handled Jackson’s latest procedure.

The Pelicans acquired the 6-foot-4 Jackson through a draft-night trade with the Charlotte Hornets, who selected the former Duke player with the first pick of the second round last summer.

Following the draft, the Pelicans signed Jackson to a three-year contract at the NBA minimum with two years guaranteed, but Jackson needed a second foot surgery last summer to address a setback following his initial surgery last May.

Anyone who watched the Thunder’s win over the Raptors Sunday afternoon in Toronto — especially the final few minutes — thought it was not referee Marc Davis and crew’s finest hour. There were missed calls and three-straight ejections of Raptors players, which all seemed rather hair-trigger (especially coach Dwane Casey, who was tossed for something a fan behind him said).

According to the report, there was only one missed call in the final two minutes: Carmelo Anthony held Pascal Siakam as a pass came to him with 11.7 seconds left, and that should have been called.

What about the play that set DeMar DeRozan off and ultimately got him ejected, the drive to the basket with 33 seconds left (and the Raptors down two) where DeRozan thought Corey Brewer fouled him? The report said that was a good no call:

DeRozan (TOR) starts his drive and Brewer (OKC) moves laterally in his path and there is contact. The contact is incidental as both players attempt to perform normal basketball moves….

RHH shows Brewer (OKC) make contact with the ball and the part of DeRozan’s (TOR) hand that is on the ball. The hand is considered “part of the ball” when it is in contact with the ball and therefore, contact on that part of the hand by a defender while it is in contact with the ball is not illegal.

(I didn’t see it that way, I think the contact was more than incidental, and to me looking at the replay Brewer catches some wrist and impedes the shot in a way that was not legal. Just my two cents.)

The report does not cover the ejections, which are reviewed by league operations but not part of this report.

Three thoughts out of all this:

1) Raptors fans/management/players have every right to feel the calls went against them in this game. As for calls always going against them — as DeRozan complained about after the game — 29 other teams and fan bases are convinced the officials have it out for them, too. I never bought that.

2) The Raptors didn’t lose this game solely because of the officiating. Russell Westbrook was clutch down the stretch, the Thunder were part of it, and the Raptors had other issues, too (Serge Ibaka had a rough game, for example).

3) This loss also does not say a thing about the Raptors in the postseason (even if they went a little too much isolation at the end) — this was their third game in four days, they looked tired and flat at the end. That will not be the case in the playoffs.